


RC #333, Mission #6: You Should’ve Left

by SkarmorySilver



Series: Protectors of the Plot Continuum: Response Center #333 [9]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Protectors of the Plot Continuum, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Canon Genderbending, Crash-Test Dummy, Crossover, Department of Implausible Crossovers, Exorcism, Genderbending, PPC Mission, Recruitment, Sporking - Freeform, Sue-wraith, badfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 20:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16625999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkarmorySilver/pseuds/SkarmorySilver
Summary: “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned. The good thing is, my brother wanted to help a lot of people… and that’s what we’re gonna do.”— Hiro Hamada,Big Hero 6(2014)In which a canon in need is a canon indeed.





	RC #333, Mission #6: You Should’ve Left

**Author's Note:**

> \- **Copyright Disclaimer:** The PPC and all related property belong to Jay and Acacia, and all agents that are not mine belong to their respective owners. _The Incredibles_ (Sarah's home continuum) belongs to Pixar and Brad Bird. _Big Hero 6_ belongs to Disney, Chris Williams, and Marvel Comics. _Rise of the Guardians_ belongs to DreamWorks Animation and Peter Ramsey, and is based on the _Guardians of Childhood_ book series by William Joyce. Agent Sarah Squall belongs to me.  
> The fic being sporked, ["I Never Left"](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10833846/1/I-Never-Left), belongs to [Sushi Hawkeye](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3835908/Sushi-Hawkeye), who may kindly keep it.
> 
> \- **Betas:** Edhelistar, Tira, Alleb, and SMF.
> 
> \- **Rating:** PG/K+ - This may be one of the least conventional and most wholesome missions ever written for the PPC.
> 
> \- **Original Posting Date:** August 19, 2015
> 
> \- **Note:** This mission occurs immediately after ["KnightFail"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16555286).
> 
> \- [Original Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/16DmeClbS0QoIMIOP2ysPQanYLl6305nTXveQTn1FYJc/edit?usp=sharing)

Cover Illustration: [ Fan Girls ](http://caligrl7072.deviantart.com/art/Fan-Girls-455913945) by [ caligrl7072 ](http://caligrl7072.deviantart.com/)

 

 

 

> “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned. The good thing is, my brother wanted to help a lot of people… and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
> 
> — Hiro Hamada, _Big Hero 6_ (2014)

 

**Pre-Mission**

 

**[BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!]**

Sarah let out an unprintable obscenity before falling off of the sofa. “THE _ONE_ TIME I GET THE RC ALL TO MYSELF,” she yelled in CAPSLOCK, “AND _THIS_ HAPPENS!!!”

Springing to her feet, she stomped over to the console, fists balled, and proceeded to punch the big red button with more force than usual. Unfortunately, that’s not something you’d want to do if you have Super-Strength. There was a loud CRUNCH followed by another obscenity from Sarah as the button dented, cracks spidering across the casing. She guessed that more than a few internal things must’ve been damaged as well, and it was almost a miracle that the console showed a report on the screen anyway.

Sarah wanted to scream in frustration, especially because now she couldn’t get someone from DoSAT to help her, not via remote messaging at least. Or respond to another team in need, for that matter.

As soon as she looked at the report, however, she recoiled, scowling. The console would have to wait. Hopefully there would be someone making their rounds while she was gone, right?

“But does the DoSAT even do routine patrols, or is that the job of the DIA?” she mused aloud. “Well, I doubt the DIA’d be the kind to fix consoles. Maybe if I could get Makes-Things to help me out…”

Grabbing her equipment, she looked at the report again. She knew both of the movies involved in this fic, especially _Big Hero 6_. She’d have to go in without her powers, though – and she’d need a crash-test dummy, too. This was, apparently, a first-person fic.

Grabbing a beige cube, sheet of paper, a roll of tape, and a pen which had been randomly lying around, she scribbled the words “FIX ME” in big letters and taped the note to the console so she could remember later. Then she programmed her disguise, opened up a portal, and tossed the cube through.

Before she stepped through, however, she paused, blinking in realization. She was going in, _without_ her powers, on her own volition. Granted, it was necessary, but wouldn’t she still need some way to defend herself?

But what if there was no need for action in this fic for once? That would probably be a first for her, taking on a Suvian who was more or less completely harmless. But maybe if…

“Oh, screw it,” she said a moment later. She picked up her sword, programmed a quick disguise for it, and shoved it into her bag. It was better to be too prepared than not prepared enough.

With that, she stepped into the portal, and –

“AIEEEEEEEEEE – _OOOF!!_ ”

 

********************

 

**Act One**

  * Soundtrack: [_Big Hero 6_ OST — “Inflatable Friend”](https://youtu.be/w1nHtoGyPoU)



 

Sarah’s eyes slowly opened, and she idly wiped the blurriness out of them. Turning her head, she noticed that she had fallen into some kind of strange hole, with walls and a bottom that didn’t look like anything she could recognize. In fact, they didn’t look like anything at all. These were Generic Walls and a Generic Floor.

She shook her head slowly, unable to process what was going on at first. How far into the fic was she, and why had she stepped straight into a plot hole right out of the gate? And why was there that weird feeling that something soft had just bounced off her head?

“Curiouser and curiouser,” she whispered to herself.

Something moved under her, rubbing against her back. She sat up, and then clutched her chest in sudden pain. Her last mission, during which she’d fought an overpowered, antagonistic replacement, had rewarded her with two broken ribs, which still needed time to knit.

Someone spoke nearby, incoherent at first, but Sarah could make out something about “stupid holes”.

“Can’t agree more, eh?” she said, shaking her head once again. “Where are you, now? I can’t see you!”

“I’ll answer your question only if you get your butt off my back,” said the voice.

She let out a startled yelp. “Oops! Sorry, uh, whoever you are!”

She scrambled off of the other person before turning to look at him. He was short and skinny, with wild black hair, brown capri pants, and a dark blue hoodie. When he sat up too and looked at her, she saw that he had large, dark brown eyes, and a noticeable gap in his front teeth.

“Here I am,” he said, waving, with an uncomfortable smile on his face.

Sarah’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open with an audible pop. “What… What’s your name?”

“Uh… Hiro. Hiro Hamada.”

Sarah’s mouth gaped even wider. Breathing hard, she turned away, grabbing at her dark hair, a bead of cold sweat running down her forehead.

“Oh no. Oh no no nonononono. Oh, _NO. Please_ tell me this isn’t happening, please please _pleeeease_ …”

“Uh, excuse me?” asked Hiro. “Is there something wrong?”

“Isn’t it obvious?! You’ve been—” She caught herself just in time. If she told him the awful truth, it would be a major violation of the PPC protocol. Instead, she looked up towards the sky over the plot hole, her eyes glazing over.

 

 

 

> **BH6 x ROTG: I Never Left**
> 
>  
> 
> **Full Summary:**
> 
> **Hiro had always been smarter than average. That didn’t stop her from believing in the Guardians, though. Of course, when the explosion happened, she stopped believing in them. After all, weren’t they there to protect Wonder, Memories, Hope, and Dreams? And Fun. Specially the Fun. But now, he was gone. Her brother was gone. The only Hamada she had left. He had been her source of wonder, he filled her memories, he gave her hope, and he made her dream. And they always had fun together. But he was gone, and Baymax was, too. But Jack never left, even when she’d stop believing.**
> 
>  
> 
> **Jack x Genderbent!Hiro**
> 
> **Onesided Genderbent!Hiro x Genderbent!GoGo**
> 
> **Tadashi x Honey**

Sarah covered her face with both hands. Her worst fear had been confirmed, and she’d arrived too late to stop it happening.

Now, the only thing she could do was go through the rest of the fic. If she could only get out of this dumb plot hole…

“Uh, hello? You haven’t answered my question! Are you okay?” asked Hiro.

“Does it look like I’m okay?!” Sarah cried. “Your friends could be in huge trouble, and we’ll be stuck here in this gosh-diddly-darned hole with no way of helping them if I don’t get us outta here!”

“Wait a sec,” said Hiro. “You mean you can get me out of this hole?”

She pulled out her RA. “The proper way to say it, Hiro, is ‘I _will_ get you out of this hole’.”

She dialed the RA to open up a portal to the start of the fic, and pressed the button to open the portal.

_[503 ERROR: SERVICE UNAVAILABLE.]_

“What in the — No, _no_ , that can’t be right!” Sarah dialed in the coordinates on the RA again and pressed the button, harder this time.

_[503 ERROR: SERVICE UNAVAILABLE.]_

“Oh, for the love of — WHY, WON’T, THIS, STUPID, F— uh, FLIPPING, THING, _WORK?!_ ” Sarah shrieked, whacking the button with her fist repeatedly. Unfortunately, again, she smashed the button a little too hard at the last word. There was a CRACK of splintering plastic, and the button popped off, clattering to the floor.

Sarah took one look at the broken device, and then screamed at the top of her lungs.

“I’m guessing you’re not, in fact, okay,” said Hiro.

She twitched, and then rounded on him. “Not okay? NOT OKAY?! I HAVE BEEN HAVING THE _WORST_ DAY OF MY ENTIRE GODDAMN LIFE! I’ve been beaten up, slandered, subject to things I will _never_ be able to unsee, and [bleep]ing _hospitalized_ to top it all off! DON’T YOU TELL ME I’M NOT OKAY!”

She turned away, instantly regretting her outburst. She picked up the button and put it and the broken RA into her bag. Another pause, and then she walked over to the side of the plot hole and banged her forehead against it, before stumbling back, tripping over her own feet, and landing flat on her back a second time.

“Owww… I forgot I don’t have my…” She trailed off before she could reveal too much, groaning in pain.

It was then that something moved nearby, making agent and canon alike look around. The soft thing that had bounced off her head and landed on the floor nearby was apparently coming to life. It slowly picked itself up, turned around to face her, and waddled towards her, stopping right next to her head. Now that she could get a good look at it, Sarah noticed that it appeared to be a humanoid white balloon the size of a toddler, with small round black eyes connected by a black line like a mouth.

 _“Hello,”_ it said in a cool female voice, blinking at her. _“My name is Gogo. I am a mini-Baymax, your misspelled healthcare companion. The proper spelling of the canon in question is either Go Go, GoGo, or Go-Go, surname Tomago.”_

“Well, that’s informative,” Sarah said dully, pressing her palm to the bruise on her forehead. “But I didn’t see you in the summary. Future chapter, maybe?”

_“Affirmative.”_

“A mini-Baymax?” Hiro said in astonishment. “Did Tadashi build a scale model of him in secret or something? A-and why is he speaking like Go Go?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Sarah muttered, still clutching her forehead. “How did you get here, anyway? You don’t even exist yet!”

_“I was transported here after wandering into a plot hole that took me from the end of the badfic to the beginning, the cause of which is unknown.”_

“So… the badfic sticks minis in plot holes until they’re needed? Well, that’s kinda new. Either that, or the badfic is probably incomplete…”

Hiro’s expression was one of complete and total bewilderment. Before he could ask, however, the mini-Baymax spoke again.

_“I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?”_

“Believe me, Gogo, you have no idea,” said Sarah.

_“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”_

“Ten. Definitely ten.”

“Uh, ten?” Hiro asked, his voice sounding worried. “What happened?”

Sarah tried to sit up, giving him an emotionless look, but had to sink down to the Generic Floor again, her chest aching. “Like I said, I’ve had the worst day of my life. And the Ironic Overpower is just waiting for me to say that it can’t get any _more_ worse, so I have to brace myself for if — no, _when_ it does.”

 _“I will scan you for injuries,”_ the mini-Baymax said in its pastiche of Go Go’s voice. A moment later, it said, _“Scan complete. You have sustained two broken ribs and a cranial contusion. Your fractured ribs require urgent medical attention, and following treatment, you are not to engage in strenuous activity for at least six weeks.”_

“They already _got_ medical attention,” Sarah replied, lifting her shirt up to reveal her elastic chest bandages. Even though her private areas were strategically covered, Hiro still flinched and covered his face.

 _“Your cranial contusion, on the other hand, is non-fatal and will disappear naturally in a few hours,”_ Gogo continued. _“An ice pack applied for several minutes will help to ease any pain.”_

“Yeah, like _that_ ’ll be helpful,” Sarah groaned, pulling her shirt back down. But then her eyes widened. “Wait… Ice… _Ice!_ That’s _it!_ That _is_ helpful! Thanks, Gogo!”

“What’s helpful?” asked Hiro, now looking totally confused.

His companion sat up again, wincing and clutching her chest, but this time she managed to remain sitting up. She turned to Hiro with a triumphant smile and said, “I know a way outta here.”

“Took you long enough.”

“Very funny. But _this_ time, there _won’t_ be any complicated remote devices to break.”

She stood up shakily, opening her bag and reaching into it. She pulled out her sword, which was now small enough to wield without her Super-Strength. In its disguised form, it looked like a high-tech implement, the hilt doubling as a thermal exchange unit with pipes and wires connected to the hilt. The edges of the blade were ice blue and freezing cold.

“I _knew_ bringing this with me was a good idea,” she said, smiling.

Hiro gaped at the weapon. “W-where did you—”

“A gift from a friend,” she replied, aiming the point of the blade at the wall. “Now, stand back! It’s time to break the ice! …Okay, that hurt.”

Before Hiro could add to that, Sarah had rushed forward with a battle cry (which is not the easiest thing to pull off with two broken ribs, mind you), and plunged the blade into the side of the plot hole. Instantly, frigid bluish white crystals began spreading from where the blade had stuck, forming a jagged line all the way to the top of the plot hole. The spikes of ice jutting out from the column were just the right size to use as hand- and footholds.

Pulling the sword out of the wall and sticking it back into her bag, she picked up Gogo, set the mini on her shoulder, and started to climb, wincing as she felt the cold surface against her palms.

“Come with me if you want to live!” she said, looking down at Hiro. Upon seeing his bemused expression, she laughed and added, “Sorry! I just wanted to say that.”

With much exertion, at least on Sarah’s part, the two of them managed to climb out of the plot hole, and as soon as they exited, they looked around. Well, Sarah did. Hiro was still alternating between blowing on his palms and rubbing them together, trying to warm them up.

They hadn’t been able to see from the bottom of the plot hole, but now that they were free from its confines, it was clear that they were standing on the grounds of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. That was probably where the plot hole had opened. Hiro had been at said institute on the night Tadashi had apparently…

Sarah didn’t finish that thought. She didn’t want to relive the memory of seeing it in the movie. She shook her head, before looking at Hiro. “We have to hide.”

He looked up at her, still confused. “Huh? Why?”

“Remember when I freaked out while we were at the bottom of that hole? Right after you told me your name?”

“I didn’t expect that to happen, I swear!”

“Yeah, well… Someone’s taken your place, Hiro.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“No, I’m not kidding. You’ve been replaced by a _girl_ . And if you and her meet up… Well, cooties will be the _least_ of your problems, I’ll say that much.”

“Whoa, whoa! Back it up, there’s a _girl_ posing as me? And my friends don’t even know it?!”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Was she the one who dumped me in that stupid hole?!”

“Correctamundo, again.”

Hiro scowled and looked away. “Well, I’ve got a few things to say to her _and_ my friends as soon as I see her. And did you really need to bring cooties into this? Does she even _have_ cooties?!”

 _“The aversion to members of the opposite gender, colloquially known as ’cooties’, is encoded in the amygdala, the portions of the brain which play a significant role in emotional reactions,”_ Gogo explained. _“Any negative responses are purely psychological in nature.”_

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Hiro asked in clear exasperation.

_“Stop whining. Woman up.”_

“Unbelievable.”

Before Sarah could add in her own comment, they heard a high-pitched voice overhead.

 

 

 

> **A/N: Edited the age. Watched the movie a week or so ago and realized that Hiro was 14 at the start of the movie. Not 13. So at this point in time (1 year AFTER the movie), he should be 16. Because the exhibit took place a year after the start. Sorry! ^^"**

Both people flinched at the Author’s Note.

“What was that?!” Hiro cried out.

“A new city-wide broadcasting system,” Sarah said quickly. “It’s gonna go off quite a few times as we go. It’s, uh, broken.”

“Hang on a sec. Did that announcement just state that I’m in a _movie?_ ”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

“And how come they said that my rebuilding Baymax was a _year_ after the portal incident with Yokai? It should’ve only taken a few weeks!”

She chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “Like I said, broken.”

The whole world shook around the pair, sending them tumbling to the ground. Sarah cried out in pain as she felt the impact jostle her cracked ribs just a little. Then another Author’s Note echoed overhead.

 

 

 

> **Thanks for the favorites, follows, and review! 3**
> 
>  
> 
> **Here's an update. R &R~ :)**

“How long is that broadcasting system gonna keep, uh, broadcasting?” asked Hiro. “It’s getting annoying.”

“Welcome to my world,” said Sarah.

The agent, canon, and mini all stood up; the scene shift had taken them to outside Aunt Cass’s café. Hiro’s eyes widened.

“Aunt Cass!” he cried, making to bolt into the store, but Sarah held him back.

“We have to _hide!_ Not barge in on the Su—  your replacement! Sorry. Replacement. C’mon!”

They snuck around the building, entering through the back door, and crept past Aunt Cass who was busy at work. Tiptoeing up the stairway, they soon found themselves outside Hiro and Tadashi’s room.

Sarah checked the Words, both in the previous chapter and in this one; Fem!Hiro, who had apparently been named **Hiroko "Hiro" Hamada** at the start of the fic, was apparently rummaging through Tadashi’s stuff. The dummy, which had taken on Hiro’s appearance, was looking for a sketchbook, presumably the one Tadashi had used to draft everything related to the engineering of Baymax. Instead, she found another book, a children’s book that she’d made for Tadashi’s birthday after their parents had died. She had been **3 and a half. He was 8.**

The world shifted slightly around them, making Sarah’s stomach lurch, and the room took on an old grainy feel.

Hiro pinched his arm, yelped, and realized that he wasn’t dreaming.

“Is this… some kind of virtual reality simulation or something?” he asked.

“If only I knew,” replied Sarah.

 _“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”_ asked Gogo.

“Emotionally or physically?” asked Hiro. Sarah facepalmed.

Hiroko, meanwhile, narrated about how Tadashi grieved for his parents back then:

 

 

 

> **When he was asleep, he cried out for them, waking me up in the process. I pretended to be asleep when he'd check on me and sleep beside me. I thought maybe, the Guardians would protect him. I used to believe they were real.**

Sarah suppressed a snort with difficulty. “As if they even existed in this continuum in the first place,” she muttered.

“Who?” asked Hiro.

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

Hiroko proceeded to show Tadashi her book, making Sarah cringe. “Oh dear Gamora, _Fangirl Japanese_ ,” she whispered _._ “ _It burrrrrns._ ”

Hiro picked his ear before whispering in kind. “I do _not_ speak like that. No way! I never once called Tadashi ‘ **Nii-san** ’, and I certainly didn’t believe in any Guardians of any sort! If this girl thinks she and I are one and the same, she’s got another thing coming for her!”

“Not to mention a blade straight down her throat,” replied Sarah.

Hiro stared at her, horrified. “Wha— What did you say?!”

The flashback soon ended, and so did the chapter. The chapter shifted yet again, throwing the agent and the canon back onto the floor. Luckily, Hiroko hadn’t noticed them. Maybe that was because they were now back in front of the college Hiro and his friends attended. As soon as they picked themselves back up, they promptly headed inside.

“I gotta be honest, here… In any other situation, I’d be freaking the heck out,” Sarah said as they entered the institute (the mini-Baymax now hidden in her bag in case anyone noticed). “I mean, you’re _Hiro Hamada!_ Teen genius and all that stuff.”

“Yeah? So why didn’t you?” asked Hiro.

Sarah sighed, looking away. “It’s really a matter of circumstance. You were in a bad situation, I happened upon said bad situation, I got _involved_ in said bad situation…”

“And now we’re here, together, with no way to tell my friends that there’s a crazy little _girl_ taking my place!”

“Right.”

She checked the Words. “They’re at the nerd lab,” she said. “Your double’s talking to Honey Lemon specifically. You know the way there, don’t you?”

“How did you know that?”

Sarah gulped, realizing who she was talking to. She shoved her hand into her bag and fished out the broken RA. “Uh, see, this here, this thing, it… scans stuff! Yeah! It tracks down the locations of people! So, uh, we can find them!”

She looked at Hiro, a nervous smile on her face. His expression of doubt told her that he clearly wasn’t buying it.

“I thought you said that thing would get us out of that hole we were in,” he said. “What, exactly, does it _do_?”

Sarah sighed. “Well, it… It tracks down the locations of people, yes. But it also allows us to move from one location to another, via a portal.”

He gasped. “A portal?! Like the one Callaghan used to—”

“Get his daughter back? Yeah, something like that. I saw the news report, by the way. You and the others were awesome back there.”

“Oh! Well, uh… Thanks! By the way, you never told me your name. You asked for mine, so fair’s fair.”

“It’s Sarah. Sarah Squall.”

The scene jolted around them, taking them to later that night. Sarah let out a slight retching noise, and had to sit down, clutching her stomach. She reached into her bag, pulled out her anti-emetics, and swallowed a pill.

 _“You seem to have developed a sudden bout of nausea,”_ said Gogo from inside her bag. _“What seems to be the problem?”_

“Isn’t it obvious? Shouldn’t it be obvious?!” said Sarah. Hiro nodded in agreement, feeling a little queasy himself.

Indeed, it was as though everything was proceeding at a much higher speed than usual; the moon was rising much faster, and there were even gray streaks dancing across the screen like a VCR recording on fast-forward. Sarah wondered how the Man in the Moon felt about being manhandled by the fic like this.

The fic only paused for one brief moment at midnight, during which Hiroko received some coffee and scrolled through pictures of Tadashi on her phone. Then the fic fast-forwarded again.

The dummy and Honey Lemon worked until well after midnight, and once the former had fallen asleep, the whole spectacle was capped off by another scene shift. It was too much for Sarah, who ran off to the nearest trash bin and began vomiting.

 _“Oh, no,”_ said Gogo, in that same emotionless tone that the canon Baymax used.

Hiroko woke up to a note under her mug, telling her that Honey Lemon had sorted things out with Aunt Cass. She narrated that she used to do this with Tadashi, **except she'd add Love you! :***

Sarah retched one last time, and then looked up at the Words with a scowl. “Since when did Honey Lemon have any feelings for Tadashi?! Nobody had _any_ feelings for each other! They were just friends!”

“Whoa, _what?!_ ” Hiro cried. “Honey and Tadashi are—”

“They’re not like that,” said Sarah. “They shouldn’t _be_ like that. Hiroko’s just a lying little b—!”

She caught herself before she could finish. Hiro gave her a confused expression once again, but before he could ask anything, yet another chapter shift jolted them. Sarah cried out in pain when she landed flat on her back, clutching her ribs.

“Do I want to know what you were gonna finish that sentence with?” Hiro asked.

Sarah could only shake her head.

 

********************

 

**Act Two**

  * Soundtrack: [_Big Hero 6_ OST — “So Much More”](https://youtu.be/1nK-3gPCBqo)



 

The fourth chapter of the badfic was fairly brief, describing how it was now autumn. Specifically, **it was still the beginning of November.** Sarah noted that this gave them a specific period within the timeline of the continuum for the fic to take place in — and that the air was much colder than it was before. Hiroko was on her way out of Aunt Cass’s café when the latter told her to bundle up — in her words, “ **wouldn't want Jack Frost to nip your nose!"**

“But… B-but Jack Frost doesn’t even exist!” said Hiro, shivering a little.

“He does to her,” Sarah replied, shrugging. “Also, charge for making the autumn weather in San Fransokyo as cold as the Rockies. Neither San Francisco nor Tokyo get this cold at this time of year!”

Hiro looked at her in confusion, but said nothing aside from a sniffle.

Hiroko stepped outside, letting out a sneeze as the cold air hit her face. A moment later, she heard another sneeze nearby, and looked around. Did she just see someone who looked just like her?

She perished the thought and walked away, pausing only to examine a few snowflakes falling down before her.

Sarah wiped the cold sweat from her brow with one hand, her other covering Hiro’s mouth and nose. It was lucky that she’d pulled him out of sight at the last moment. An Author’s Note congratulating the readers and reviewers of the fic echoed overhead, but the agent, canon, and mini remained silent as they hid behind a random corner.

 _“Gesundheit,”_ said Gogo’s muffled voice from inside her bag once they were sure Hiroko had gone.

“H-how d-do you do that?” the canon asked, still shivering. “Y-you’re more used to c-cold than I am…”

“I come from a place further north,” she replied. “Where I live, we hatch from eggs laid in mudbeds during the early fall, and burst fully-formed out of the ice. In January.”

“S-so, you l-live in C-Canada?”

Her eyes widened. “How did you guess?”

“Internet. D-duh.”

Beat. “Well, the word’s out. I _did_ live in Canada as a kid. Edmonton, specifically.”

 _The equivalent in_ The Incredibles _universe, anyway,_ she added mentally before continuing.

“My parents moved to America before I started high school. From there, it gets kinda… complicated.”

“What do you—”

Another chapter shift took them to the start of Chapter 5 before he could finish the question. The two of them ended up sprawled on the floor just as the chapter title ( **Ch 5: Winter Cold** ) and some text reading **[Flashback: Hiro is 6 and in third grade; Tadashi is 11.]** whizzed over their heads.

The fic now took on the grainy feel from the earlier flashback sequence. It was the middle of winter, and even Sarah shivered a little. Hiro covered his mouth just before he sneezed again, the muffled noise doing little to throw off the fic.

Sarah rummaged through her bag, pulled out a purple ski parka, and draped it over the canon’s shoulders. She’d brought it in case Jack showed up and made it snow everywhere. “There, there,” she said, patting his wild black hair in an imitation of his personal healthcare companion.

The agents hid behind a random snowdrift just as a six-year-old Hiroko appeared, running towards someone Hiro couldn’t identify. **He was wearing a blue hoodie with frost on it, and brown, very old looking pants. I think those were like the pants around 350 years ago.**

Sarah’s eyes widened in horror. Inside her bag, Gogo the mini-Baymax went, _“Oh, no…”_

“…That guy is _not_ one of my friends, isn’t he?” asked Hiro, still shivering a little.

“You bet your goddamn ass he isn’t,” Sarah growled.

As they watched the dummy!Sue talking to Jack, handing a Christmas card to him, Sarah noted that this placed the flashback close to that holiday. Appropriately, Jack discussed North with Hiroko, and the two of them proceeded to hang out together until Tadashi left his own school. Until…

 

 

 

> **"Hey, Nerd!"** **  
> ** **I stiffened, meeting their eyes. I moved closer to Jack, trying to despite knowing I had been seen.** **  
> ** **It was them. Marlon, Shy, Lisa, and Drew. The popular group, the cool kids, whatever you wanted to call them. Whatever they said, almost everybody believed. They were the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th best in our class, respectively. I was first.**

Sarah’s stomach tightened. Hiro looked at her with an expression of utter bewilderment.

“I don’t know _any_ of these people,” he said.

“You wouldn’t,” Sarah replied. “They’re just there as supporting characters for the… uh, well, you as a girl.”

“So they aren’t supposed to even exist?!”

“I don’t know. Maybe they—”

She was cut short when the bits proceeded to tear up the card Hiroko had given to Jack, and then bully her in full force. Jack, being invisible and intangible to those who didn’t believe in him, could do nothing to stop them, though he still **made it snow harder.**

Sarah wanted to cover Hiro’s eyes and prevent him from seeing all this, but it was too late. Both of them stared at the scene before them with horrified fascination.

At the end of it all, the bullies had thrown off the Sue’s jacket and earmuffs, and left her beaten and broken in the snow. Jack, sympathizing with her, took off his hoodie and dressed her in it.

Hiro continued staring, to the point where Sarah had to pull him down behind the snowdrift to avoid making the Sue suspicious.

“B-but… if he was invisible… and intangible…” Hiro whispered, “then how come he was able to use his hoodie to warm her?!”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Sarah, rubbing her forehead.

It was a long while before Tadashi appeared, at which the Sue bade goodbye to Jack, the latter flying off to do his own thing. Tadashi asked about her torn clothing, and the chapter ended.

Sarah and Hiro sat with their backs to the snowbank, unable to believe what they had seen. The chapter shift jolted them again, leading them to the start of Chapter Six.

There was a long pause, the only sounds being Hiroko and Tadashi talking to each other as they headed home, their voices fading in the distance. Hiroko eventually had to explain how she’d lost her jacket and scarf.

“I don’t remember _any_ of that happening to me as a kid,” said Hiro. “Nobody really bullied me for any reason. And this Jack Frost guy? I don’t even remember anyone like that existing! Why is this happening? _Why?_ ”

He buried his face in his hands, and started to sob.

Sarah didn’t know where to start. Should she tell him about the true nature of what they were going through? Obviously not, but maybe if she could cover up what he had no right to know…

“I have a brother, back in Canada,” she said. “We knew a friend… A friend who went through a lot of the same things that we’re going through. Someone took her place, too, and did many things. T-terrible things. Things she would never imagine doing.”

Hiro looked at her with an expression of doubt. “I don’t think _anyone_ could go through what we’re going through. Please tell me this is some kind of stupid dream, Sarah. I don’t know why, but I just _know_ it’ll make me feel better.”

“I’m pretty sure my friend would feel the same way,” said Sarah. “Well, she did after staying in Medical and FicPsych for two weeks. At least _you_ didn’t get your leg chewed off by a dinosaur. Or get turned into one, for that matter.”

Hiro stared at her with wide eyes. “Your friend… Uh…”

“She got involved in a story, written by forces beyond her control, beyond _our_ control. We call them authors. They write stuff, and when characters like us get caught up in it… Well, it isn’t pretty.”

Hiro couldn’t believe his ears. “And this Hiroko is doing the same thing? Or is going to?”

“Oh no no no, not at all! But she’s still a threat to the world you live in. Which is why I have to kill her.”

There was a moment of silence as Hiro processed this.

“Are you _crazy?!_ ” he finally whispered, his voice betraying horror and outrage. “You don’t have to kill her! She may be a danger, but if I could just _talk to her—_ ”

“Did we talk with Violet’s imposter? _Could_ we talk with her? She’d have eaten us before we could get a single word out!”

“But you can’t do this. You just _can’t!_ What if she just said a few things wrong? What if she’s just being crazy and not hurting anyone else? You shouldn’t kill her! I won’t let you, not after Tadashi… Tadashi…”

He began to sob even harder this time. Sarah instinctively reached out and patted his shoulder. Even Gogo peeked out of her bag and offered a _“There, there.”_

“I’m sorry for your loss, Hiro. But this is something I _need_ to do. The fate of this world depends on it. I’d explain in full, but…”

“You don’t want to talk about it?” asked Hiro.

Sarah sniffled. “It’s too complicated for even you to understand. But I think you got the gist of it anyhow, so… yeah.”

He wiped the tears from his face. “I’m… sorry… for your friend, too. If anything, I’m glad she’s fine now.”

She smiled a little. “Thanks, Hiro.”

The flashback, and the chapter, ended with Hiroko and Tadashi being treated to hot chocolate by Aunt Cass. As the agent and the canon sat in silence, an Author’s Note rang out overhead, declaring that the author was busy with a vacation abroad along with college, and once again thanking the readers and beta.

This was followed by yet another chapter shift, which took them back to the present day. Specifically, at the start of winter.

The chapter title, **CH7: Snow Day** , flew overhead, and as soon as Sarah and Hiro got to their feet, they hid behind a different corner near Aunt Cass’s café. Hiroko and her friends were in the garage, having planned to continue building Baymax — but it had started snowing. This led to only one logical outcome: **Fred threw a snowball at GoGo. He retaliated, hitting Honey in the process.**

Sarah abruptly stopped reading the Words, trying to process what was going on. Was Go Go being referred to as a he?

“Sarah? What’s wrong?” asked Hiro.

“Your friends are okay,” she replied. “But Go Go’s a girl, isn’t she?”

“Uh, yes. Why?” And then he looked at He!Go Go, and his eyes widened. “She’s… a _guy!_ ”

“Yep. We have to find the real Go Go and get _her_ imposter outta here, too.”

“You’re not going to kill him too, aren’t you?” asked Hiro, glancing at her bag.

Sarah laughed nervously. “Probably not. Aside from being a guy, he’s the same as the real Go Go. _Hiroko_ , on the other hand…”

Hiro shifted uncomfortably. “That’s her name? My name as a girl?”

“I don’t know… It sounds like another instance of Fangirl Japanese. Hiroko _is_ a Japanese name, but I’m not sure if it was used in the way the author of this fic intended.”

Hiro wisely decided not to ask about that.

The world shifted around them slightly. Now, Hiroko and He!Go Go were forming a team on one side of a snowball fight, and Wasabi, Honey, and Fred formed the other. Hiroko had finished making a pile of snowballs, but then He!Go Go noted that she had apparently made two. Hiroko started wondering about whether Jack had joined them, but then she got caught up in the snowball fight, and forgot about that for a moment.

When the snowball fight ended, with Hiroko and He!Go Go on the winning side, the group settled down for hot chocolate, and the Sue realized what was wrong.

 

 

 

> **Our pile of ammunition didn't seem to go empty even during long runs when both me and GoGo couldn't stop and restock.** **  
> ****More snowballs landed on the other side than the number of snowballs we threw.** **  
> ****Heck, even the snowmen looked better than when we first made them.** **  
> ****That doesn't add up…** **  
> ** **I giggled from my silly thoughts, causing them to look at me.** **  
> ** **"Jack Frost," I said. They looked at me like I was crazy.**

Sarah facepalmed. “I should’ve known.”

“Did this Jack Frost guy cause it to snow in San Fransokyo in the first place?” Hiro whispered.

“That, uh, I don’t know. But being so far from Pennsylvania — so far from Jamie — just to spend time with Hiroko… This is _not good._ ”

“Wait a sec. Who’s Jamie?”

“A friend of Jack. But unless Jack somehow headed from his own world to San Fransokyo and back several times, he would’ve had to stay in San Fransokyo for _years_.”

“He has his own world?”

Thinking fast, Sarah replied, “Y-yes, actually. The portal that Callaghan made… The void behind it leads to other worlds besides our own. But we all have to stay in ours’, for our own safety.”

 _That wasn’t even a lie_ , she thought. _But did I say too much?_

Hiro paused to think of this. “I see… So, how soon do we find some way to get Jack back to his own place?”

“ _Waaaay_ too soon, Hiro. Way too soon.”

With that, the agent braced herself for the next chapter shift, the canon hesitantly following suit, and waited.

 

********************

 

**Act Three**

  * Soundtrack: [_Big Hero 6_ OST — “Silent Sparrow”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45twJietyj8)



 

 

 

 

> **CH 8: Frost**
> 
>  
> 
> **We all got sick from our little snowball fight that day, but I took it worst. It had been less than a week before they recovered, but it took me about two to do so. Christmas had come and gone, and here I still am.**

Despite her illness, Hiroko was still able to attend Aunt Cass’s Christmas party, but she stayed home for the rest of her sick period. Sarah and Hiro appeared **On the second day of being healthy** , and after recovering from the chapter shift, they snuck into the house a second time.

The Sue was lying on Tadashi’s bed, feeling bored and lonely, when she noticed some frost on the window. She **drew a smiley face and a mirrored "Hi Jack!" as a joke.**

For a few minutes, nothing happened; Sarah shook her head, muttering something about the futility of believing in what doesn’t exist. But then, when the Sue looked at the window again, she saw that it was open. And then something invisible traced the words, **"Hi Hiro :) "** onto the glass.

 **"Woah! Cool! Jack Frost, is that really you?"** said Hiroko. She narrated about Jack being her imaginary friend as a kid, garnering a facepalm each from both Sarah and Hiro. And then another voice called out, **"Wait, can you see me again?"**

And there he was, clad in his **Dark blue frosted hoodie** , and his **Brown frosted pants that ended at his shins, tied with some strips of cloth at the ends. That frosted, crooked staff: the conduit for his powers.** And so on.

“He’s real, all right,” said Sarah. “But he's not supposed to be here.”

“So, how do we get him back to wherever alternate dimension he came from?” asked Hiro.

“I have a plan. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth a try.”

Hiro’s face went slightly pale. “Callaghan's portal?”

“How did you guess?”

“Sarah, you can't. I'm sorry, but we have no idea where Jack’s home world even is, and if we take too long looking, we could get stuck there forever!”

“How can you say that?”

Hiro gave her a pleading look. “Because I’ve been there. I lost Baymax there. And I don’t want to lose you, too.”

Sarah gaped at him. If the Flowers had heard what he’d just said, they’d have her head on a pole!

“Hiro, I… I'd like to get to know you better and all, but… I can't stay,” she said.

The look on his face hurt worse than V-Wrex's roar. “Why?” he asked.

Sarah could hear the devastation in his voice, but there was nothing she could do.

“I know it’s hard for us both, Hiro. But we can’t be friends. Forgive me for never telling you this, but… I’m not from your world.”

He stared at her. “You’re not?”

“You know how Jack was from a world beyond your own? Well, I’m from another of those worlds. And I have to find a way back to my friends, my family… Everyone I love and care about is back where I come from. I’m sorry, Hiro, but to use the expression… it’s nothing personal.”

There was a long, horrible silence. Outside the house, another Author’s Note congratulated the readers yet again.

“So… What do we do?” asked Hiro.

“We get you home,” Sarah replied. “And then, well, we'll have to say goodbye.”

Another chapter shift sent the agents sprawling just then. They found themselves in the café, in the middle of a Christmas party. The Sue was hanging out with her friends, and numerous other people were attending as well.

The fic, unfortunately, chose that time to fast-forward again, so Sarah and Hiro couldn’t relax like everyone else. But just before the scene sped up, Sarah would swear she'd locked eyes with Hiroko for just a split second.

That did not bode well on any level. But it wasn’t something she could worry about just yet. She’d need a better time to step in.

The fic resumed its normal pace the next morning, complete with Sarah dry-heaving into the toilet and Hiro trying to comfort her. The Sue woke up to find a wrapped package — and a note.

 

 

 

> **Hiro:**
> 
>  
> 
> **You've been good these past two years but I never knew what to get you. I am truly sorry for loss of your brother. He was also good; never got in naughty list. One of my favorite children; too bad he grew up early. I heard I was favorite Guardian!**
> 
> **Don't be afraid. Your Wonder in the world is strong, and I will make sure it stays strong.**
> 
> **Your brother would be proud of you.**
> 
>  
> 
> **Keep your eyes wide with Wonder,**
> 
> **Nicholas St. North**

Sarah stared up at the ceiling with a “Why?” expression on her face.

“So, this Nicholas guy is not from my… world… right?” asked Hiro.

“Not from your world?! He's the equivalent of friggin' _Santa Claus_ where Jack comes from!” Sarah whispered.

“I’ll take that as a no. Do we have to wait this out, or…”

“Do I have to answer?”

The Sue’s gift consisted of **three dolls with a string you could pull to hear them talk.** Jack, Baymax, and Tadashi. The chapter ended shortly after that, with another long Author’s Note which discussed the length of the chapters and clarified that Hiro and Go Go had indeed been genderbent in the fic.

Sarah and Hiro were rocked by one more chapter shift, which took them back to the **nerd lab**. The title of the chapter, **Ch 10: Gogo** , whizzed past them (“So _that’s_ where you came from,” Sarah said to the mini-Baymax), and a brief Author’s Note rang out before the chapter started, describing how the Sue and He!Go Go were working together in the lab.

 

> **Gogo was working on his maglev bike (Not fast enough), while I was working on Baymax. You know, the usual.**
> 
> **He'd been refueling not with sleep but with coffee, energy drinks, and sometimes, alcohol.**

Sarah stared up at the Words, a look of blank shock on her face. This He!Go Go was not just a genderbent version of the canon, that much she could say.

“Are those… liquor bottles?” asked Hiro, looking at the trash can full of empty beverage containers next to Go Go’s desk.

“Yes,” said Sarah. “Yes, they are. Also, charge for taking caffeine and alcohol at once. What does this guy want, a heart attack?!”

Inside her bag, the mini-Baymax nodded in agreement.

The fic then fast-forwarded yet again. This time, thankfully, it was rather brief, and stopped on the fourth morning since the chapter began.

 

 

 

> **I have a horrible thing of talking in my sleep. I'd say weird things or admit what I feel at the time. Like right now.** **  
> ** **I had woken up at around 10 am to find Jack gone and a sober, hung-over Gogo staring at me.** **  
> ** **They all knew I talked in my sleep. They'd hear half of my "conversations" with Tadashi, mostly during those nights when I'd collapse from fatigue and stress.**

“Hiro, do you — Do you ever talk in your sleep?” asked Sarah.

“Uh… No. Why do you ask?”

“Because your female counterpart apparently does.”

“Oh. Oh, not good.”

“I wouldn’t call it bad, personally. But I don’t like it when it's used as a reason to angst.  It just sounds silly.”

“Yeah, well, still… It’s embarrassing, at least to me. Wait… Is the guy Go Go trying to kiss the girly me?!”

Sarah looked at the replacements, shocked and confused. After a moment, though, it seemed like Hiroko and He!Go Go wouldn’t work out.

 

 

 

> **"I'm sorry Hiro, it's just-"**
> 
> **"Yeah, I know, I'm too young for you, you see me as a little sister specially since Tadashi died. I get it. I didn't want to tell anyone anyways." I shrugged, looking down at my lap.**

“Way to be a smartass, Hiroko, even while wangsting,” Sarah muttered under her breath.

They watched as He!Go Go hugged Hiroko and left, and after some more narration from Hiroko, the chapter abruptly ended. The Author’s Note ringing overhead complained about college, making Sarah cringe.

“Well, good thing I never went past high school,” she whispered.

Hiro stared at her once again. “You mean… you _dropped out?_ ”

“It’s a long, sad tale, I'm afraid. For now, let’s keep going.”

She sat down, awaiting the next chapter shift, and… nothing.

“Wait, that’s it?!” she cried. “That’s all there is? I know it’s incomplete, but _this_ soon?!”

“Hey, don’t look at me!” Hiro replied in fright. “And what do you mean, this soon?!”

Sarah reached into her bag, pulled out the bits of her RA, and desperately tried to put it back together. “There’s gotta be more! I have to find more!”

“Sarah, wait! You’re only breaking it even further!” Hiro cried, trying to stop her with little success.

“I don’t care! I, just, have, to, GET, THIS, THING, WORKING!” She kept banging the button against the casing with each word, as though expecting it to fuse back together.

“Get what working?”

The voice came from neither of them. Looking up, they realized with simultaneous jolts of terror that Hiroko had joined them.

Hiro screamed, grabbed a nearby broom, and brandished it at his double like a spear. “S-stay back! I h-haven't had my cooties vaccine!”

“Cooties? But those don't exist!” said Hiroko. Then she realized who she was talking with and gasped. “Oh, no… Oh no no _no!_ How did you—”

A loud clicking noise got her attention. Sarah was banging the button of her RA against the casing in a bid to distract her.

Hiroko stared at the broken device, her eyes wide. “Is that a plot hole generator? I think I know how to fix it.”

Sarah gaped at her. “P-Plot holes?!”

“They’re just like portals, only a lot less stable. I don’t know why, but I think there's a reason for them showing up. Like whenever something seems… wrong, but you don't know what.”

Hiro didn’t even know what to say to that.

“And you can fix this thing… how?” asked Sarah.

Hiroko took the bits of the RA from her, examining them. She smiled and said, “It just needs a bit of rewiring, and the button needs to be set back in place. But I may be able to repair the forced inconsistency generator and get it back up and running within the hour.”

Sarah took several moments to process this, blinking a few times. “H-how… How do you know about plot holes?”

Hiroko gave her a blank stare. “Just a guess?”

Sarah and Hiro looked at each other, the latter smiling nervously. At that moment, everything came together in the Super's head.

 _“Because you shoved Hiro into one,”_ she said slowly, her eyes going wide in horrified realization. Hiroko suddenly looked tense, and stepped backward.

That was all Sarah needed. She reached into her bag and pulled out the mini-Baymax.

Wait, the mini-Baymax?

She growled, tossed Gogo aside, and reached into her bag again, this time pulling out her sword. The dummy screamed, stepped back again, tripped over her own feet, and landed on her rear. Sarah pointed the sword at her with an enraged glare.

 _“Oh, no,”_ said Gogo.

“Hiroko Hamada,” Sarah snarled, “by order of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum, you are hereby convicted of being a character replacement on account of the following charges: Replacing the canonical character of Hiro Hamada; mucking up the timeline of the _Big Hero 6_ movie; using Fangirl Japanese; creating a mini-Baymax, namely Gogo; believing in canons from a different continuum, namely _Rise of the Guardians_ ; snatching a canon from said continuum, namely one Jack Frost; wangsting too much compared to your canon counterpart, who handled grief and loss _well_ ; having habits and characteristics which would be considered OOC for Hiro himself; and forcing me to wade through all ten chapters of your dumb badfic with a broken RA and a canon annoying me with too many questions!”

There was a sound of four pairs of feet, and He!Go Go, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred burst into the lab.

“What’s going on here?!” cried He!Go Go.

“Hiro?” asked Honey Lemon. “Hiroko! Oh my goodness!”

“We’ll save you!” Fred cried, grabbing a nearby sign, but before he could rush in, Hiro appeared with the broom in his hands.

“Wait!”

Everyone stopped and stared.

“You… What… You look like…” said Wasabi, unable to finish.

“Stand back, everyone, and shut your eyes! This is gonna get messy!” Sarah shouted suddenly, thrusting her sword towards Hiroko who shrieked in terror.

“You’re not gonna hurt her!” Fred roared, hurling the sign at her. She swung her blade with frightening speed, slicing it in two.

“Hiroko is a fake,” she snarled. “She’s replaced the Hiro you know and love. And Go Go as well. Which reminds me, He!Go Go. You are convicted of being a replacement as well on account of being a genderbent version of Go Go Tomago and abusing alcohol in a PG setting. I'll deal with you after I'm done with her!”

“ _No!_ ” Hiro cried, suddenly placing himself between the agent and the dummy with his arms spread. “Don’t do it, Sarah!”

“ _Out of my way!_ ” Sarah cried, brandishing the sword. “You’ve got _ten seconds_ to give me _one_ reason why I shouldn’t slice her in two!”

“Because if you do, you’ll be stuck here forever!”

That got Sarah’s attention. She stared at both of them, her expression suddenly worried. “Forever?”

“I know you’re mad at Hiroko, and I am too. But we’ve been through the same things. I know Tadashi wouldn’t want you to do this to her.”

“Wrong answer!” She raised her sword, and Hiroko screamed again.

“All right, all right! Then here’s a _right_ one,” said Hiro. “She’s the only one who can fix your plot hole generator. You need it to get home. If she dies before she fixes it, you'll be lost in my world, with no way back or out!”

Sarah’s sword trembled. Hiro and all of his friends gave her looks begging for her not to do it. She screamed, Hiro screamed, Hiroko screamed, the sword swung downward…

The blade clattered to the floor, its icy chill dissipating. Sarah fell to her knees, covering her face in both hands, and burst into tears.

Hiro patted her shoulder, once again not knowing what to say. All he could muster was a rather Baymax-like “There, there…”

Hiroko stood up, still shaking. “Do… Do you still want me to help you?” she asked quietly. “I-I know you’re mad at me. You have every right to be. But like Hiro said, I’m the only one who can get you home. Once that’s done, I’ll leave, too.”

Sarah looked up at her, eyebrows raised. “You will?”

“There’s nothing I can do anymore, and once you’re gone, there will be nothing to justify my existence. You can strike me down once I’m done for all everyone cares. But at least give me one chance to say sorry.”

Hiro gave Sarah a pointed look. The Super agent stared up at the dummy, her gaze forlorn.

“Can I at least have a nap, first?” she said. “I’m tired.”

 

************

 

An hour later, Sarah, who was sleeping on the couch in the lab, felt someone shake her awake.

“It’s done, I think,” said Hiroko. “Do you want to test it out?”

Sarah sat up, rubbing her eyes, and nodded. Hiroko led her to Tadashi’s old lab, where they were greeted by the sight of the agent's RA, held together with duct tape.

Sarah hesitantly picked it up, dialed the coordinates of FicPsych, and pressed the red button.

The RA sparked and fizzled for a few moments, but then a ring of blue light appeared. The canons, agent, and Sue burst into applause and cheering.

“Well, it was good knowing you, Hiro, but it's time for us to say goodbye,” said Sarah, patting his shoulder.

“I thought you said you were the one leaving,” said Hiro.

“I know, but you need to see someone after what you've been through. Don’t worry, you'll be back rebuilding Baymax faster than you can say 'ow!'”

Hiro laughed. “I’ll miss you, Sarah. Really.”

“I’ll miss you, too,” said Sarah. And with that, she stepped forward and hugged him. He returned the hug, smiling warmly, while the other canons 'awwww'-ed around them.

A few moments later, Sarah led Hiro through the portal. A few brief words with Sister January were all that were needed, and Sarah stepped out of the portal after a few minutes. “All right, Hiroko. You’ve done your job. Now, get out of my sight!”

She glared at the dummy, who flinched. But then her gaze softened, and she smiled. “Nah, just kidding. How could I let you go without saying thank you?”

Hiroko smiled back. “It was only fair, seeing as I was the only one who could help you.” She turned to the canons and added, “I’m sorry, everyone. I deceived all of you… I hope you can forgive me and let me leave in peace.”

But everyone was smiling now. “We’re not mad at you, don't worry,” said Honey Lemon. “You were willing to admit that you were wrong, and that’s more than we can ask for. And hey—” She caught her in a hug. “You’re not a bad person.”

“Yeah, just a clueless one!” added Fred, prompting Wasabi to nudge him in the shoulder.

Hiroko smiled, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Goodbye, everyone,” she said. “And thanks. For everything.”

With that, she closed her eyes, and exhaled her final breath. A wilver mist started seeping from every pore in her body, dissolving into nothingness, and the dummy deflated. Sarah bowed her head in respectful silence, and then collected the dummy.

“Well, I believe we’re back in business!” she said cheerfully. “Now to return Jack to his home world! Sort of.”

“Wait, who’s Jack?” asked Wasabi.

“It’s a long story, I’m afraid. Wait here, guys. I'll be right back!”

She opened another portal and vanished through it, leaving the replacement and the dummy alone with the canons and the mini.

There was a long, awkward silence. Then a voice called out from somewhere nearby.

“Hello? Anybody? What was with all that racket?!”

He!Go Go looked towards the source. A plot hole was lying in the far corner of the lab. He rushed over to it to find…

“Are. You. Freaking. Serious. Hey, guys? There’s a girl who looks like me down there!”

The others rushed over and looked down the plot hole as well.

“You serious?!” Wasabi cried to He!Go Go. “Does that mean… Everything we knew about you was a _lie?_ ”

“Will you two stop whining, people, and _get me out of here?!_ ” the canon Go Go cried from the bottom of the hole.

“Hang on, I'll get you out of there!” called He!Go Go. He turned to the others and asked, “Guys, could you get me some wire?”

A few moments later, Go Go noticed an electric power cord being lowered into the plot hole.

“Grab on! We're pulling you out!” called Honey Lemon. Go Go did so without hesitation, and with a lot of tugging, the canons and replacement pulled the real Go Go out of the plot hole.

Go Go took one look at her male counterpart, and lunged forward to slug him. Honey Lemon stepped between them with a frantic look.

“Whoa, whoa! Calm down! We're sorry for what happened to you. We didn’t know you'd be stuck down there for—”

“Six months?!” Go Go snapped in response. “I could’ve completed college in six months! How dare you!”

He!Go Go smiled in embarrassment and rubbed the back of her hair.

At that moment, a portal opened, and Sarah reappeared, dragging an unconscious Jack Frost behind her. For some reason, he had a big goofy smile on his face.

“I’ve _always_ wanted to do that,” said Sarah, grinning broadly. At the replacement’s confused look, she added, “Don’t ask.”

“Wait a sec, who _is_ this guy?” asked Go Go.

Sarah facepalmed. “Oh spitballs, I forgot about you! Sorry in advance, but…”

She opened a portal to FicPsych and shoved her through, closing it before the annoyed canon could respond. Then she opened a portal to her RC for He!Go Go, who took it as his(/her?) cue to leave. “I’ll follow you. Don’t worry about me.”

After bidding the canons goodbye, and with Gogo the mini-Baymax riding on his/her shoulder, the replacement headed through the portal, which closed behind him/her.

“Okay, that’s that with those two,” Sarah said. “Anyway, can you guys please leave for a moment? I need to, uh, call somebody.”

After ushering the other canons out of the lab for their own safety, she shut the door, walked over to the still-prone Jack, placed the _Rise of the Guardians_ DVD she’d brought with her on his chest, and pressed her hands to his ice-cold forehead.

“In the name of DreamWorks, I compel the wraith who has possessed this canon to come _out!_ In the name of Peter Ramsey, I bid this canon to be freed from the horror that _binds him!_ In the name of William Joyce, I command the force behind this character’s curse to _face me!_ JOYCE COMPELS YOU! _JOYCE COMPELS YOU!!_ ”

At once, Jack shuddered, and an urple mist poured out from his mouth, coalescing into the vague form of a person and complaining about classes.

Sarah snatched the DVD away and raised her sword. “By order of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum, you are hereby convicted of the following charges: Possession of the canonical character of Jack Frost; aiding and abetting a character replacement; making said canon accompany said replacement instead of one Jamie Bennett; and making it snow in the _Big Hero 6_ equivalent of California. You get no last words, you big glittery _meanie!_ ”

She slashed the wraith in half, and it dissipated with an unearthly shriek.

Jack woke up at that point, rubbing his eyes, and turned to see Sarah holding a little rod-like device up to his face. _FLASH!_

“You’ve never met anyone named Hiroko Hamada, or been in any place called San Fransokyo. I was never here, and you will be with Jamie in Burgess, where you should be. Have a nice life! Or existence, whatever.”

She opened a portal to Burgess and shoved him through before closing it. Stepping out of the lab, she saw the rest of Hiro’s friends, who all had bemused expressions.

“You’re free to use the lab again! ” she said, taking out her neuralyzer. “But first…”

_FLASH!_

 

********************

 

**Post-Mission**

 

“Hmmm, if I put this wire here, maybe it will work… No, that can’t be right. Perhaps this could go here, maybe? Or if I could hook up this port over here, or put this cable here, or maybe…”

Sarah stepped through the portal and back into the RC to find He!Go Go sitting in front of the broken console. The former replacement had taken out a lot of parts and scattered them on the desk and floor, including, but not limited to, three circuit boards, an HDMI cable, several memory chips, a half-dozen spark plugs, a mechanical escapement, and an entire four-stroke engine.

Before Sarah could say anything, He!Go Go picked up the engine and hurled it across the room with a cry of rage. It missed Sarah’s head by an inch, instead embedding itself into the wall.

“I can’t do this! I’ll _never_ be able to fix this stupid, _stupid_ — Oh! Sorry, uh, whoever you are.”

“My name’s Sarah, for future reference, and watch where you throw stuff, you moron! Uh, why were you trying to fix the console?”

“It had a sign on it that said ‘FIX ME.’ I thought it was an instruction, so…”

Sarah laughed, embarrassed. “Well, it wasn’t meant for you specifically. I'll give you credit for trying, though.”

She walked over to the couch, where she saw an envelope next to Gogo the mini-Baymax, who was cuddling a less-than-pleased mini-Godzilla. _“Scaaaaly baby! Scaly baaaabyyyyyy…”_

Sarah picked up the envelope, raising an eyebrow. “We’ve got a letter, He!Go Go, and it’s addressed to both of us!”

The replacement looked up in surprise. “It is? How did they get my name and address?!”

Without answering the question, Sarah opened up the envelope… and was horrified to find that the letter inside consisted of a single printed sentence plus a signature.

 

> _See me in my office immediately._
> 
> _— The Lichen_

“Well?” asked He!Go Go. “What does it say?”

Sarah gave her a look of utter despair. “We are _so_ busted.”

“…Why?”

There was a long, horrible silence. Then the Super spoke again. “Come with me, He!Go Go. It’s about time the two of us had a nice, long chat.”

 

#  **[END]**

**Author's Note:**

> That fic was… complicated, I'll say that much. My feelings about it are honestly more annoyed than outright angry — though I was still confused about it too much to just leave it unsporked. So, the good stuff first: Aside from Hiroko wangsting and bringing Jack into the picture, the characterization was actually quite good, even if a lot of the characters didn’t get as much screen time as they should’ve. When they do get screen time, however, the secondary characters gave believable behavior and dialogue, and don’t throw off the story — a rare plus for a hurt/comfort fic like this.
> 
> However, my biggest concern with this fic was that the author seems to have taken a lot of things about the Big Hero 6 movie and world at face value. A number of details like the timeline and setting are incorrect, and I really don’t think the Spirit of Winter being in the area is an excuse for it to snow in what’s basically San Francisco mixed with Japan. For the most part, the story focused on Hiroko and her angst too much, and Jack didn’t actually do that much despite the fic being a crossover. In fact, there was very little reason for the ROTG continuum to be involved at all, even though the author billed it as being more heavily ingrained into the fic. I guess that’s because the fic itself got left hanging, and as with some fic I’ve sporked previously the release of more chapters could have rectified these problems. The potential for a quality goodfic is there, but without more information and with all the inconsistencies it had, I just had too much of a hard time actually enjoying it.
> 
> The original draft of this mission involved Hiroko being recruited, but feedback from and private conversations with some of my betas led me to drop that idea, which I think is for the better in hindsight. Whether or not I thought she was salvageable, there was no way I could rescue Hiroko for two reasons. First, a First-Person fic pretty much necessitates a dummy, and second, recruiting her would sound too much like favoritism on my part. The one good part about this is that the Go Go replacement was mine for the taking, and I think he/she/they would be a more interesting challenge to work with. I may not like hard decisions like this, but sacrifices have to be made sometimes — and it was only fair that I’d have to leave a potential character idea behind at least once.
> 
> — SkarmorySilver
> 
>  
> 
> Rescued characters:
> 
>   * Male!Go Go Tomago (adopted by SkarmorySilver)
> 

> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Rescued minis:
> 
>   * _Big Hero 6_ (mini-Baymaxes):
>     * Gogo (adopted by SkarmorySilver)
> 



End file.
